Dark Knight of the Skye (6 page)

“Going to a biker funeral?” D`nae asked stepping up to meet him.

“What… you don’t like it? I think the color goes with my eyes,” he said lowering his glasses just enough to peer over the edge, grinning slightly.

“You really like black, don’t ya? What happened to the whole suit-and-tie thing?” she asked waving her hand about, looking at him from head to toe. His sudden chameleon-like character was proving to be very confusing to her, and not very reassuring.

“That was business… and this is the only color that the bag came in.”

She shook her head, flashing her best fake smile and the two headed out of the airport and back to D`nae’s truck. Grady threw his bag in the back and waited for D`nae to open the doors. After they were in the truck, rather than starting it, D’nae just sat there looking down at her keys.

“What’s the matter?” Grady asked reaching across the seat, lying his hand on top of hers. ‘
He is already starting with the whole touchy feely shit,’
she thought, deciding it was time to set things straight once again.

She looked over at him wondering if what he had just said was true, or if he was saying what she wanted to hear. She knew if Grady had come along before she had found Danny things might have been different, but it was way beyond too late. The only thing she could do now was hope that Grady meant what he had just said, and not put her in a position where she had to hurt his feelings a second time.

“I appreciate that,” she said looking over at him. “I just don’t have room in my life for a relationship right now.”

“Yeah, you already told me that back in Scotland, remember?”

She decided to start the truck and change the subject before the conversation went to a place she didn’t care to visit at this point in time. She had already gone through this little story with him and it was something she didn’t care to venture back into. How could anyone explain that their love happened to be the walking dead? It had been hard enough for her believe that Danny was a vampire, something she thought only existed in the world of fantasy.

“Why don’t you let me check your place out before we decide on anything? If someone has been getting in your place, do you really want to be there by yourself if they decide to come back? Do you?” he quickly asked with emphasis.

He started laughing and she couldn’t help but join in. They drove without any more incidents all the way to her apartment, which was located on the outskirts of town. They talked about nothing but the shopping mall and Movie Theater that was located close to her place, and the way the reddish orange sky bled into the top of the pines and oaks on the winding rows of summer foliage.

Her apartment was actually a small two story home, where she lived on the top and her landlady lived on the bottom. It was far enough away from the city limits that she felt like she lived in the country, but close enough that she didn’t have more than a thirty minute commute to work. Once they got out of the truck, Grady reached into the back and opened his bag, taking out a small handgun and a box of shells.

“How on earth did you get that past security?”

“I have a federal license to carry all over the United States. I just told them I was on a hot case,” he explained taking off his glasses, giving her a look she didn’t care to see.

She shot back a roll with her eyes and headed for the front door. “What’d I do?” he said, walking swiftly to catch up, while loading the gun. She went to put the key in the foyer door when it swung open a few inches.

“What the hell?” D’nae said, more to herself than to Grady. “This door is always locked. Mrs. Martin!” she called out. “Mary, the door’s open!” When she got no reply, D`nae started to go in, but Grady grabbed her arm and pulled her back out of the way. “Wh…” He put his finger to his lips and pointed at her to be quiet and stay behind him. He pushed his gun on the solid wood door, slowly opening it wide enough to see inside. He reached in with his free hand and felt for a light switch. As soon as it was flipped, it was more than apparent that something terrible had happened.

He tried to push D`nae back out of the door, but she had already seen the carnage that was once the sweet old lady who had greeted her with a cup of hot chocolate every night for the past three years. D`nae screamed as her body buckled into Grady’s arms, her mind threatening to blackout, while her body uncontrollably heaved almost losing everything she had consumed that day. The sight and smell were overpowering and far more than she could handle. The mere appearance of seeing a dead person was one thing, but to see one that had been decapitated and brutally torn apart was another. Remnants of Mrs. Martin’s body were spread throughout the foyer and halfway up the staircase. Her insides had become her outside and her head lay grotesquely upside down by her shoulder, looking back at the front door with agonizing fear still frozen in a death scream on her blood soaked face.

The torso of the woman was an empty shell, filled with the remaining fluids of her body and the torn cloth of her floral print housecoat. It was as if someone had reached in, ripping through cloth as well as her flesh, grabbing both hands full of her digestive system, and then standing to sling them in a circle, making sure to get a piece of her in every part of the small foyer. Grady got D`nae back out to the truck and called the authorities. He was about to turn around and go back in when D`nae reached out and took his hand.

“You can’t leave me out here by myself.”

“I’m sorry you had to see that. Are you going to be okay?” He stepped up to her and moved the loose hair that was hanging in her face.

She nodded and leaned out from the seat of the truck, lying her head on his chest. He stepped in slowly, wrapping his arms around her, finally holding the one thing that he had craved ever since the night her file slid across his desk. She had become the drive of this investigation in his area of motives, even more than finding the creatures responsible for the horrific string of murders that he had been tracking from the time he became a member of the A.A.D.F. Every part of his body carried a fine tremor as his hand massaged her back in small circular motions. D`nae sniffled, drawing in sharp breaths every few minutes, relaxing against his tepid body, not once thinking about anything other than the sight she had just witnessed.

“They’re gonna want to talk to you about the woman inside,” Grady said, lying the side of his face lightly on the top of her head, taking in as much of her scent as he could. “If you’re not up to it tonight, I can try and set it up for you to go in first thing in the morning.”

“I know I can’t handle this tonight, Grady. I can’t help but think about what would have happened if I would have been home. How can I think of myself when that poor woman is dead?” she said and began to cry.

“Self preservation is a natural element built in every creature, and it’s very normal to think of our own mortality when something like this happens.”

“Who would do something like this? She was just an old lady. She wouldn’t even kill a damn spider. She would just put it in the garden and laugh at me for freaking out,” D`nae proclaimed turning her head, wiping her nose on the back of her sleeve.

* * *

The officer that approached them was none other than Officer Hernandez, only this time the expression on his face looked a bit like humble pie. As soon as D`nae noticed who was coming toward them, the nausea that had just subsided crawled right back up to the base of her throat. If he had just believed her in the first place, Mrs. Martin might still be alive. “I guess I wasn’t just being paranoid after all,” D`nae sarcastically commented.

He cleared his throat and shifted his waistband, then took out a small notepad and pen. “I need to ask you a few questions, Miss Creel,” Officer Hernandez nervously said.

“We could have skipped this whole thing, if you and your partner hadn’t been such assholes the first time you came out,” she angrily replied.

“D`nae there’s no need to take this out on the officer, he’s only doing his job,” Grady added trying to calm her down.

“His job! His fucking job, Grady? This is the son of a bitch that more or less laughed in my face when I told him someone had been in my apartment in the first place,” she profoundly exclaimed getting down from the truck. “Let me give you some good advice, Grady. Don’t you ever treat me like I don’t know how to handle my own feelings or you can get back on that plane just as fast as you walked off.”

“She’s right. We were way out of line. I’ll be the first to apologize for our actions, and Miss Creel, I swear to you that I will not stop until we find out who did this,” Hernandez promised.

“I appreciate that, and I’m sorry I jumped like that. This is way over the limit of a massive strain on my nerves… what do ya need to know?” she asked a bit calmer.

“Other than the murder, the first floor was pretty much untouched, but your apartment was completely ransacked. The door wasn’t merely kicked in; it looks like it was shattered by the force of a small tornado. I know I asked this before, but can you think of anyone that would want to harm you or the victim?” Hernandez asked.

“No, I swear I can’t think of anyone. She’s the…
was
the sweetest person that I’ve ever met and I can’t imagine even knowing someone that could do such a thing.”

“I’m not going to ask you to come down to the station tonight, but I do want you there first thing in the morning. As soon as the victim has been removed and the forensic experts are finished, you can go in and get whatever you may need for the next week or so,” Hernandez explained.

“Thank you, Officer,” she replied looking up at the house. She climbed back in the truck to wait.

Grady walked back up to the house with Hernandez and the two disappeared inside. Around thirty minutes later, Grady came out with a small bag that she recognized to be the one from her closet shelf. He went around and got in the driver’s side and asked for the keys. She didn’t say anything, just handed them over. Her nerves were teetering on the fragile point of breaking down and driving was the last thing that she wanted to do right now.

He pulled into the first place that he found. “Lock the doors as soon as I get out, this won’t take long.” He was out of the truck before she had a chance to respond. When he came back, he hopped in and drove around to the rooms that faced the back of the motel. He got out and walked around to her side, opening her door. He reached into the back, gathering both of their bags and headed to the room, with her at his heels.

When she noticed that he only had one key, she asked, “You only got one room?”

“I’m not about to leave you alone,” he replied. “You don’t have anything to worry about, D`nae, the room has two beds. Besides, do you really want to stay in a strange place all alone tonight?”

“No, but I’m not too sure I want to share one with you, either.”

“I know I can be a pain when it comes to how I feel about you, but you can consider me on the clock. Being with you is the last thing on my mind right now.” he said, giving her a salute.

“Good, let’s make sure it stays that way. Now, what did you get out of my apartment? The only thing I want to do right now is get into a hot bath.”

Just the thought brought a smile to Grady’s face that in turn added a rosy blush to D`nae’s. “This is going to be a long night,” she commented, pushing past him, snagging her bag from his grip as she did. As soon as the door was unlocked, she was in and closing the bathroom door. Grady shook his head and flopped down on the bed closest to the door. He waited, letting her have her alone time in what would be the only free space she would get without him, no matter how hard she protested tonight.

He was about to dose off and would have if the cell phone in his jean pocket hadn’t started vibrating. He took the phone out and sat up on the side of the bed, looking over to make sure the bathroom door was closed before he answered it.

“Yeah.”

“We got two on the south side, there’s no doubt,” the voice on the other end said.

“Give me a minute,” he replied and walked to the bathroom door. He placed his ear to the door and waited until he heard the water in the tub slosh about before he walked over to the window, moving the curtain just enough to peer out at the parking lot. He leaned back into the corner and put the phone to his ear. “Talk.”

“Looks like two teens, one boy, one girl. They were forcibly pulled out of their car, same M.O. as the rest. Probably just came up here to make out.”